Where is this God who bids us sing these praises?Where the power which has driven us to our death

In our thousands and our millions through the ages

Where are you God?Speak to us as we weep.

* * *

Be comforted, be comforted my people, says your God

For there is much that you can never understand

No one answer that will solve this brutal riddle

Look inside yourselves, find comfort and seek peace.

Be comforted, be comforted my people

As you turn your heads once more to look upon

All the journeys which have taken you to exile.

Teach your children, share what's left of your belongings

Take the journeys that your ancestors have walked

Carry with you all the hopes and prayers they cherished

Suffer with them as you try to understand

The fires of Babylon and Rome and Auschwitz

Feel their tears, their pain, their faith, their hope, their love.

Yes be comforted, be comforted my people

You remember now and surely will again

Take the long and bitter road back through your history

Remember Zion, weep, but sing my song

In lands more strange than ever you'd imagine

And I will give you comfort, bring you home.Rabbi Pete Tobias August 1995

* Shabbat Nachamu is the Shabbat after Tish'ah b'Av, so called because the haftarah for the day is Isaiah 40, the first of a series of haftarot of consolation following the destruction of the Temple on Tish'ah b'Av, which begins with the words nachamu, nachamu ami - translatable as 'be comforted, be comforted my people.'